Toy horse



United States Patent Ofiice 2,72 1 ,419 Patented Oct. 25, 1955 TOY HORSE Sue B. Carsteusen, Redondo Beach, Calif.

Substituted for abandoned application Serial No. 257,756, November 23, 1951. This application February 3, 1955, Serial No. 485,980

1 Claim. (Cl. 46116) This application is a substitute for my abandoned application Serial No. 257,756, filed November 23, 1951.

My invention-relates generally to the field of toys and more particularly to a novel toy taking the form of a miniature simulated horse.

Although simulated horses of all types have'appeared on the toy market in the past, to the best of my knowledge there has heretofore never been produced a simulated horse having independent simulated horseshoes which may be applied to and removed from the hooves of the horse. The novel toy of the present invention contemplates a simulated horse equipped with independent simulated horseshoes, as well as simulated horseshoe nails, a miniature hammer and a miniature nail puller. With this equipment a child may himself apply the horseshoes to the hooves of the toy horse. Later he may remove these horseshoes for subsequent re-application to the hooves; the latter being formed of a material suitable to receive the simulated horseshoe nails.

Thus, it is the major object of my invention to provide a toy horse having simulated horseshoes adapted to be applied to and removed from the hooves of said horse by a child.

It will be apparent that the manipulation of the simulated horseshoes, horseshoe nails and hammer during the shoeing operation requires certain skill on the part of the child. This skill in turn requires a mental and physical coordination of the childs mind and body. Such coordination, it should be noted, may be developed in the child by his repetition of the shoeing operation while at play. Hence, although the child is not aware of such self-development and will be interested in the toy solely for its entertainment value, the toy will also contribute to the development of his mental and physical coordination.

Therefore, it is another object of this invention to provide a toy which serves to develop a childs mental and physical coordination as he entertains himself with the toy.

A further object of my invention is to provide a toy which will be of educational value to a child. To this end, it should be observed that in playing with my simulated horse the child will acquire a knowledge not only of horses, and the relationship of horseshoes thereto, but also training in the use of hammer, nails, and nail pullers. Moreover, in playing with the simulated horse of the present invention, the child will be stimulated to learn more, not only about horses, but also about other animals.

It is another object of my invention to provide a toy which is simple of construction and may be inexpensively produced whereby it may be sold sufficiently low-priced as to be retailed in the medium priced merchandising fields.

These and other objects and advantages of my invention will become apparent from the following description of a preferred embodiment thereto, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing, wherein:

Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a miniature simulated horse constructed in acocrdance with the present invention;

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view taken in vertical section on line 22 of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a fragmentary view taken in vertical section on line 3--3 of Figure 2; and

Figure 4 is a perspective view showing one of the simulated horseshoes to be supplied with my simulated horse.

Referring to the drawings, the simulated horse of my invention may take the form shown in Figure 1. As shown in this figure, the horse includes a body portion B, a neck portion 10 and a head portion 12. Depending from the body portion B are leg members L, each comprising an upper section 14, a lower section 16 and a hoof 18. Shown attached to the hoof portion 18 of each leg by means of simulated horseshoe nails 20 is a simulated horseshoe 22. The present invention contemplates that these horseshoes 22 be capable of application to and removal from the hooves 18 by a child.

To this end the hooves 18 should be formed of a material suitable to receive the nails 20 and from which these nails may subsequently be withdrawn. Such a material may be a soft wood, such as balsa or yucca. A resilient material such as rubber may also be suitable for this purpose. However, wood will generally be preferable inasmuch as the pounding of nails thereinto is accompanied with a good deal of noise; the creation of such noise having a great deal of appeal to children.

In order to add to the realism of the shoeing operation, it is desirable to so construct the legs L that their lower portion 16 may be bent rearwardly as the horseshoes are applied to or removed from the hooves 18. With this arrangement the body B of the simulated horse may be maintained in its normal upright position, as indicated in Figure 1. To this end the horse may be sold with a simulated bench 24 shown in dotted outline in this figure. The knee portion of the leg being shoed may rest upon the top of the bench 24 whereby there will be aiforded easy access to the under side of the hoof 18.

If the legs L are so constructed, it is preferred that the lower portion 16 be normally biased to assume a straight position. In this manner further realism Will be provided because at such time as the bench 24 is removed from under the knee portion of a legv being shoed, the lower portion 16 of the leg will automatically return to its original straight position.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention each lower leg portion 16 is pivotally connected to its upper leg portion 14 by means of a pivot pin 28. As shown in Figure 2, this pin 28 extends through aligned bores 30 formed in depending bifurcations 32 of the upper leg portion 14 and aligned bores 34 of upstanding bifurcations 36 of lower leg portion 16. The ends of this pin may be swaged as at 38 to restrain movement out of the aforementioned bores. The lower leg portion 16 may be biased to a vertical position by resilient means such as a spring 40.

This spring 40 is shown to consist of a first straight portion 42 anchored to the upper leg portion 14, a second straight portion 43 anchored to the lower leg portion 16 and a central coil portion 44; the latter portion being disposed about the pivot pin 28. It will be readily observed that this spring will resist any force tending to move the lower leg portion out of its straight position, and that hence it will tend to return this portion to a straight position whenever it is freed after having been pivoted to a bent position.

The body B and the upper and lower leg portions may be formed of any suitable inexpensive material, such as papier-mach. However, other materials will also prove satisfactory, such as plastic, wood or metal. The mane 46 and the tail 48 may be composed of bristle.

The simulated horseshoes 22 may appear as shown in Figure 4 and may be formed-of any suitable material. Metal is recommended, however, because of its strength and ease of manufacture. Each horseshoe will include a number of holes 50- adapted to receive the simulated horseshoe nails 20.

Anadded touch of realism may be furnished by providing the simulated horse with a saddle 52 and a saddlebag 54. Conveniently, the saddlebag maybe formedwith a pocket 55 adapted to contain the simulated horseshoes, nails, a miniature simulated hammer 56 and a miniature simulated nail puller 58. Extra horseshoe nails may also be carried within this saddlebag. The saddle andsaddlebag may be formed of thin, natural or simulated leather, and in keeping with the realism of the remainder of the assembly, will be made removable from the horse,

Although a preferred embodiment ofthe invention is set forth herein, it will be apparent that various modifications and changes may be made without departing from the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

A horse-simulating toy, comprising: a body formed of papier-mach, said body including integral depending upper leg portions each formed with bifurcations at its lower- -end; lower leg portions eachincluding upwardly extending bifurcations pivotally interconnected to the bifurcations of an upper leg portion whereby said lower leg portion may be bent rearwardly relative to said body; spring means connected to said bifurcations so as to normally bias said lower leg portions to a straight position; wooden hooves secured to the lower end of said lower leg portions; simulated horseshoes removably affixed to said hooves; simulated horseshoe nails, for afiixing said horseshoes to said hooves; a simulated saddle mounted uponv said body; and a simulated saddlebagmounted'upon' said body, said saddlebag having a pocket adapted-to receive said horseshoes and said nails as Well asa simulated hammer and nail puller.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 589,982 Rousseau Sept. 14,1897 1,862,558 Wetzel. June 14, 19 32 1,927,558 Sumisky Sept. 19, 1933 2,124,667 Davis July 26, 1938 2,560,657 Nogle V ,July 17, 19,51 

